In July 2017 a court case started that is expected to set a legal precedent. At the center of it is the abusive use of the social security number system (kennitalakerfi) by the National Registry, leading to the discrimination of children of foreign origin born in Iceland and the violation of their rights by other state institutions.

The law on children (Barnalög) states in article 1 that children should not be discriminated:

The article 7 of the children law stipulates that children born in Iceland need to be registered on the national registry ("Barn skal skráð í þjóðskrá þegar eftir fæðingu þess."). However, the national registry has taken the liberty to attribute to some children a national security number out of registry (útangarðsskrá kennitala). This is a kennitala meant for people that have business with Iceland but do not reside there or no longer than 6 months (see about the national security number system, in Icelandic ). The use of this social number by the national registry for some children in Iceland is arbitrary and not supported by the law, and is discriminatory against these children.

The law (lög um lögheimili) also defines clearly the legal address and stipulates that the legal address of a person is the place where that person has permanent residency, where they live and sleep when not traveling for work, health of vacation purposes :

These technical aspects are highly important as they have resulted in the past to the deportation of children born in Iceland and that have lived their whole life here. A recent example is the case of the Shiroki family that was deported last summer (2017) even though their two daughters, 3 and 1 years old were both born in Iceland. Unlike in many countries, children born in Iceland do not obtain nationality automatically, however the article 102 of the Immigration Act (Lög um útlendinga) prevents the deportation of foreign nationals born in Iceland that have had continuous residency in the country, according to the National Registry (!!).

This is why this minor technical detail and small discrimination can have a tremendous impact on the life of a child.

Erna Reka was born in Iceland in April 2017, her parents had been working in the country and tried to renew their work permit and got a denial just before her birth. The National Registry gave her a social security number out of registry, but linked to an address in the country. The lawyer of Erna challenged the use of this social security number and started filing for court. The National Registry decided, without informing either Erna’s parents or her lawyer, to modify her address and locate it abroad, making her a non-resident of this country and depriving her of any rights. Because of these decisions of the National Registry the Immigration Office declares absurdly that Erna, which has never stepped out of the country, does not live here and therefore can be deported along with her parents.

The court case challenges the grounds (or absence of grounds) of the administrative decisions of the National Registry and the hearings started in December and are well on their way. Her lawyer has been asking for a freezing of the deportation decision by the Immigration Office. Article 79 of the Immigration Act permits this freezing because the question of the residency is such a crucial point in the case, and the deportation of Erna could impact her case and prevent her from getting a fair trial. Under Article 79 of the Immigration Act (“Dvalarleyfi á grundvelli lögmæts og sérstaks tilgangs.”) , persons may have the right to get a residency permit, if there is a court case going on. This application by Erna and her parents was rejected by the UTL and in addition it moved that they be banned from Iceland for 2 years.

The case will have a tremendous impact on the defense of the rights of children of foreign origins born in Iceland, as it appears that the National Registry takes the liberty of playing with the national security number of children. Considering the past arbitrary decisions of this agency, we can easily imagine that a family of foreign origins with children born here could suddenly get denied further residency in Iceland (If say, they have stayed here for 6 years, but suddenly one of the parent lost their job) and their address would be arbitrarily moved abroad. By doing so the National Registry would prevent the children from benefiting from the protections provided by article 102 of the foreigners law and could suddenly deported out of the only country they know.

We protest the decision of proceeding with the deportation of Erna Reka and her parents as it could clearly affect the case that is presently in court and we ask Sigríður Ásthildur Andersen (Minister of Justice) and Katrín Jakobsdóttir (Prime minister) to intervene and allow justice to proceed without interference.